Leslie is supposed to be horrified by the news, the scene had to be re-shot many times because she kept laughing at Ron's facial expression. Cultural references Andy says of Jean-Ralphio, "That Ralph Macchio guy's a total douche." This is a reference to Ralph Macchio, an actor who appeared in the 1983 drama film The Outsiders, which also starred Rob Lowe. The line was improvised by actor Chris Pratt. In another scene, Ben tells Leslie the song he played after getting sworn in as an 18-year-old mayor was "Whoomp! (There It Is)", a 1993 hip hop song by the duo Tag Team. The episode features several quotes from author and outdoorsman Jack London. Among them, which Leslie reads from her master plan proposal, is, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club," and "So I say the function of man is to live, not to exist. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot." The original script included about one dozen different London quotes, but most were cut from the final draft. Schur said he used London quotes because he believed the author was one both Leslie and Ron would admire. At one point in the episode, while discussing April's birthday, Leslie says, "Damn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over?" to which Ron replied approvingly, "Jack London." The line was improvised by actor Nick Offerman. Reception In its original American broadcast, "The Master Plan" was seen by an estimated 4.28 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. It marked a five percent increase in viewership compared to the previous episode, "Telethon", and was the only NBC series on May 13 to show an improvement in ratings over the previous week; the comedies The Office, Community, 30 Rock and The Marriage Ref all saw declines. HitFix writer Daniel Fienberg did not believe Rob Lowe's guest appearance significantly helped the Parks and Recreation ratings, calling the increase "a statistically irrelevant bump". "The Master Plan" received a 2.7 rating/5 share among overall viewers, and a 2.0 rating/6 share among viewers between ages 18 and 49. Parks and Recreation ranked third in its timeslot, behind the CBS reality series Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains and the Fox crime drama Bones, but received higher ratings than the ABC science-fiction drama FlashForward and